Teen launches New Engand sports Web site

I'm bored. It's rare those words from a 13-year-old lead to anything good, but they were the start of something unique for Rahul Matta and his dad. NEteams.com launched about a month ago.

Julia Spitz

I'm bored.

It's rare those words from a 13-year-old lead to anything good, but they were the start of something unique for Rahul Matta and his dad.

"Last summer, I was playing a lot of baseball but I was kind of bored," said Rahul. His father, Anil Matta, was busy with an online project for a classified advertising firm.

"His sister was working, but I told him, at 13, he couldn't get a job," said Anil. So Rahul came up with the idea of a Web site designed for young fans of Boston's pro teams.

NEteams.com launched about a month ago.

"Now we're trying to, like, market it," said Rahul.

The site features information on all six pro teams: Rahul's beloved Sox and Pats, the Celtics "I'm now getting into," the Bruins, plus the less-publicized Revolution soccer and Cannons lacrosse teams.

"I have friends who love both the Revolution and the Cannons," said Rahul.

What he needs now is more contemporaries to share that love.

An ad on craigslist.org brought in a few writers. NEteams contributors include Celtics radio commentator Patrick Gilroy.

"Now our goal is to go into the schools, talk to the students," said Anil. "The goal is to have a lot of students write."

Rahul envisions boosting the site's user-friendliness. "It's going to be more a social networking site. Right now it's just blogs."

Plus trivia.

Rahul's pretty good with Sox and Celts stats, but not always good enough to answer his own site's questions.

Saturday morning, he went with Bobby Doerr instead of Johnny Pesky on "What Red Sox infielder is infamous for supposedly holding the ball when Enos Slaughter raced home with the winning run in Game 7 of the 1946 World Series?"

Still, the young man who splits his time between his father's home in Newton and his mom's in Marlborough has a healthy reverence for the past.

"Carl Yastrzemski, he's my favorite player," said Rahul.

His youth sports jerseys "all have 8 in them," said Anil.

Rahul plays baseball, basketball and soccer at the Fay School in Southborough, which he's attended since first grade. He's also played in Marlborough's local leagues.

"I've got a lot of different ideas" about possible careers, said the eighth-grader. He'd like to be baseball player, journalist and a cook.

"For Thanksgiving, he prepared the whole meal," said Anil.

At school, "Spanish, English and math are my favorites," although he'd rather write about the Red Sox than some of the topics he's been assigned this year.

"I can write a lot about something I'm passionate about," he said.

His favorite Pats are "obviously Tom Brady," Randy Moss and Tedy Bruschi. He likes Celtics Kevin Garnett and Eddie House. But there's nothing like those three magic words, "pitchers and catchers," as in pitchers and catchers report to spring training in a matter of weeks.

"Normally we go down every year" to Fort Myers, Fla., to see the Sox warm up when Fay School's on break in March.

One time, "(pitcher) Mike Timlin threw me some sunflower seeds." Another time, "I got three balls in one game."

Last spring, "I was surprised with some of the young kids," like Dustin Pedroia and Clay Buchholz, "and they surprised Boston" during the 2007 season.

"I've been a couple of times" to Pawtucket. "I want to be there (as a player) someday."

That takes work.

So does a Web site that could include local college sports as well.

"There's a whole different language" you need to know to build a site, said Rahul.

"As he saw it evolving, he'd say, 'Can we do it this way? Can we do it that way?' And I would get it done," said Anil, who found advertisers for the site through Google.

Now it's just a matter of marketing, and that may not be Rahul's long suit.

"I haven't told many of my classmates," he said. "I want it to be a surprise."

But he's pretty pleased with what he and his father have done so far.

"I like the fact that it's for kids my age, and I like the fact that it's not boring."